Access

[Sharma]

To put relevant information on the internet would take a goverment task
force at least 5 years to determine which information should be public.
Then a new government agency would have to be created and funded, via
legislation of course, so that should take a minimum of another five
years. Then of course it would have to be staffed and equipped. By that
time we would have gone thru several election cycles and the only people
still in DC who were there at the beginning would be the lobbyists for and
against this new agency and a few legislators. 

At this point the legislation would have been so changed that it probably
would have become either the department to sell public information or the
department to convice the public they do not want information. Only if it
is the transcript of secret grand jury testimony about sex can it cut
through the normal red tape channels and arrive on the internet quickly.
And after the public did not jump the way the people who put that there
hoped, the chances for other information to arrive got even slimmer. 

-s 


On Thu, 5 Aug 1999, Joe Mabel wrote:

> Yeah, but Supreme Court decisions?  Congressional votes?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Aki Namioka [SMTP:aki at halcyon.com]
> Sent:	Thursday, August 05, 1999 9:25 AM
> To:	Steve
> Cc:	scn at scn.org
> Subject:	Re: Access
> 
> I know exactly why most agencies don't put their information on the web -
> there are huge privacy issues and fear of inapprorpiate information
> getting out of control.  Its a mess and hard to deal with.  Government
> agencies do not store, maintain, nor safeguard information for public
> consumption.  Most of their databases were created to do government
> business - allowing public access was not in the original spec.  There are
> also flaws in laws that dictate what is public information - for example,
> in Washington State - your birth certificate is public information.
> Anybody in theory should be able to get a copy.  Do you want this
> information made public for all to see?  I don't.  Even though this
> information is "public" the State will not issue a copy of the certificate
> unless they are somewhat confident that you have a "right" to that
> information (e.g. you are the individual or close relative).  They are
> probably not going to put birth records on the internet in the near term.
> There are a gazillion cases like this in government data stores - unless
> there are better laws protecting personal privacy and defining public
> information I like the fact that government agencies are conservative with
> their information - they are at least taking stewardship a little more
> seriously.
> 
> Thanks,
> Aki Helen Namioka
> aki at cpsr.org
> 
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